Las Vegas Sun

March 28, 2024

Sun Editorial:

Putin would be overjoyed by Trump’s budget plan

In producing President Donald Trump’s budget, his staffers said they “wrote it using the president’s own words.”

Funny, we could have sworn they took dictation from Vladimir Putin.

There’s certainly a lot in the budget for the Russian leader to love.

Let’s start with the staggering 28 percent cut for the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development, or USAID, which includes reductions for the United Nations and cultural exchange programs.

Where will foreign nations now turn for support? Russia leaps to mind, meaning the budget would give Putin a prime opportunity to expand his sphere of influence and fuel his imperialistic ambitions.

Putin also must be tickled that the White House went through with the cuts over the objections of the U.S. military — or at least the group of more than 120 retired generals who signed a letter saying State Department funding was “critical to keeping America safe.” That group included retired Gen. David Petraeus, a former CIA director, and retired Adm. James Stavridis.

“We know from our service in uniform that many of the crises our nation faces do not have military solutions alone — from confronting violent extremist groups like ISIS in the Middle East and North Africa to preventing pandemics like Ebola,” the generals wrote.

But the Putin budget — sorry, White House budget — doesn’t stop with damaging foreign relations.

It also weakens American cities by eliminating Community Development Block Grants that are used for law enforcement initiatives, health services and community development programs.

Furthermore, cities and counties would be hurt by a 13.2 percent cut in the Housing and Urban Development Department, including a $1.1 billion reduction for the HOME Investment Partnerships Program and several similar programs aimed at providing affordable housing for low- and moderate-income families.

“That would be a huge loss to us,” said CJ Mathe, administrator for the Nevada Housing Division, in a story published Friday at lasvegassun.com. “That would temper our ability to expand affordable housing, and we have a shortage of affordable housing.”

A shortage of affordable housing threatens to reduce public safety, as families who are desperate for suitable living spaces could turn to overcrowded homes or begin committing crimes to afford rent. And if you think Las Vegas has a squatter problem now — and it most certainly does — just wait until there’s less affordable housing in the community.

Then there’s the provision to resurrect the Yucca Mountain high-level nuclear waste dump, which may be the single-worst provision in the budget in terms of damaging a city. Given that waste would be transported through the heart of Las Vegas, raising the possibility of an accident or terrorist attack that would unleash lethal amounts of radiation, the budget’s effects on Las Vegas could be devastating.

Looking at a wider scope, the budget contains elements that will be so politically divisive and create so much domestic turmoil, Putin and his dark-ops spooks would have had a hard time engineering them any better. These include slashing EPA funding by an unconscionable 31.5 percent, eliminating the National Endowment for the Arts and carving $6 billion out of the National Institutes of Health.

Somewhere, Putin is smiling.

The overall effect of the budget would be to reduce America’s international influence and stature while Russia’s grows.

Congress absolutely must say nyet before Trump makes Russia great again — something Putin and Russia couldn’t do on their own.

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